Endurance Flow

Hey there, welcome to yoga anytime. Thanks for joining me for this 20 minute sequence. This sequence will bring some strength, definitely to your core, will work on mobility, flexibility and endurance all just boxed up in this little 20 minute package for you. So let's start in tabletop. All right, so come on down, make sure you've got your mat, any kind of beverage drink you like to have nearby.

And from tabletop, let's get right into it with cat cow tilts. Okay, so I kind of like to curl my back toes. You can choose, let's inhale, chest forward, gently gaze up, seat draws up. So you feel that nice arch in the back. On the exhale, pull the navel up, up, up, up, up towards your back body, round out the back, gazing gently toward your thighs and really spreading deeply across your upper back.

Inhale, drop the shoulder blades, drop the belly, arch the back, cow pose, exhale, round it out. Cat. Good. Let's do three more if you need any, you know, your own personal side stretches or circles, go for it. Inhale cow pose, exhale, cat, as you begin to slowly and intentionally integrate from where you were into your practice.

One more, I think that's four, I lied. Inhale, arch the back, exhale, cat pose. Back into a table, point your toes back, knees wide, child's pose, stretch out the hips, reach your arms forward. Keep your hands as far forward as you can as we move through this little cycle. So you're going to come into tabletop on the breath in.

On the breath out, keep your arms straight, let the thighs and your hips drop down so you're in kind of like this stretchy, lazy up dog. Bend the elbows and you'll kind of move through cobra and then all the way down. Inhale back up through cobra. Maybe you straighten your arms, maybe not, maybe that's too much on your back. Inhale all the way back to your child's pose, stretching it out, again, inhale table.

Use your exhale to lower down that up dog cobra all the way down. One more time, lift up through cobra, up dog, but it's a lazy one, right? Just as we get started here, child's pose, exhale, okay? Forward into table, hips down, arms bent, lowering, perfect, inhale cobra, upward facing dog, straighten out those arms if you can, and child's pose, perfect. Table top, curl the toes, downward facing dog, downward dog.

Always take a little time here to open up the backs of the legs and all those organic kind of nice moves that you may be accustomed to. If you're not accustomed to any and you're wondering what to do, it might feel nice if you start by bending your knees, lift your seat up, push your chest back towards your thighs, and then straighten one leg. So one heel draws down as the opposite leg bends deeply, and then do the opposite side. You might, let's say your left heel is down, right leg bent, send your hips over to the right a little bit, and do the other side one more time. So right heel down, hips over to the left, left leg bending, back over to center, walk your feet forward to the front of your mat, forward fold, half lift, breath in, fold exhale, rise up, inhale, reach the arms overhead, press the palms together, and exhale, seal the arms or seal the hands at your heart center.

Let the arms come down by your side, reach the arms up, inhale, exhale, forward fold. Inhale, half lift, exhale, plank pose, lower down, inhale, back bend, upward, cobra, up dog, your choice always, downward facing dog. Now from downward facing dog, don't lift your legs, but all I want you to do is move into plank pose and draw your right knee as close to your right elbow as you can. With an exhale, downward dog, left knee, right, strong exhale as you traverse into plank or move into plank, right knee, right elbow, left knee. Four more on each side.

Exhale one, exhale one, exhale two, exhale two, exhale three with the right, exhale three with the left, exhale four, exhale four. Now lift your right leg up, still working here, bend your right leg, I'm gonna grip onto the outside of the mat, you can do so as well, it just gives you a little more something to hold onto, a little more traction. Squaring the hips, draw the right knee to the right elbow, plank, still working here, right leg straight up and back, three legged dog, knee to nose, inhale up, right knee toward the left elbow, crossing, spin the left heel down, shoot the right leg out, boom, you could pause here and then lift the hips, reach the left arm up and back, fallen angel I think. Lower the hips, bend the right knee, sweep it back up into three legged dog, just when you think you had enough, you bend that right leg, flip dog, rock star, shoot the left leg out, press the right, right arm up and back, hips high, good, lower the hips, back over to three legged dog and step the right foot up to the front of the mat, high lunge, rise and shine, power from the ground up, field goal the arms, chest opened up, you know what, let's do this, take the hands behind the head, clasping behind the head and pull the elbows back, open the chest and shoulders, a little balance series coming up, so start to refine your focus, let the arms come back down, bring the hands to the center of your body and come to balance up on that right leg, shoot right on up, so your left leg is bent, I'm going to move back just a bit, left leg is bent, you can do this with a straight leg but I kind of prefer it bent. Right hand on the outside of the left knee and thigh, hips remain square, left arm peels back and you're in a standing spinal twist, breathing of course, super good, we're going to come into now that figure four kind of pigeon chair action, left ankle over the right thigh, wobble, that's okay, that's actually kind of preferred, point your left toes forward, push the hips back, I like to reach the arms straight out as I hinge the hips or pull the hips back, strong right leg and when I say preferred to wobble that just means you've got to really focus on like kind of catching yourself and it's just, I don't know, I like the focus, I like the like I almost fell but I caught myself.

Standing split, so go ahead and come on up, release, sweep the left leg back, standing split with the hips pretty square, hands down to the mat, don't worry about how high or low your left leg is, you may bend the left leg, straighten it up and back, let the head really relax, forward fold, really nice, half lift for some adjustment in the back, fold exhale, walk back into downward dog, move yourself through a transition of vinyasa if you will, plank, inhale, exhale lower, inhale upward, exhale downward and we'll do the same thing on the left side, so reach the left leg up, bend it, open the hip, okay, a little core work here, like whole body core stability, square the hips, left knee to left elbow, core firing, inhale up, knee toward the nose, plank, inhale up, knee toward the right elbow, spin the right heel down, shoot the left leg out, post up on that left arm and then straighten up and back, lower the hips, moving toward flip dog, take the left leg, sweep it up, bend it, set that left foot back behind you with control, shoot the right leg straight out, press up, check in with your breathing, even though we're moving at a decent clip, right, you want to check in with the breath, lower down, back into that three legged dog pose, into high lunge, power from the ground up, exhale the hands behind the head, open up the shoulders, elbows pull wide, core is like holding everything together, come to balance on the left leg, right knee high, bent right leg or straight up to you, left hand right thigh, lengthen the spine, exhale rotate to the right, super nice, kind of that figure four pigeon chair combo, point your right toes forward to ensure knee safety on the right knee, push the hips back, reach your arms forward, acts as a little counter, or you can kind of take your arms out wide, hopefully you grab that pigeon stretch in the outer right hip, standing split, right leg lifting nice and high or low, you can bend that right leg, kind of crouch in and then lift back up, bend it in, lift it back up, forward fold, exhale, inhale long spine, exhale walk back into your downward dog, last in yasa, plank pose, inhale, exhale lower, inhale upward facing dog pose, exhale downward facing dog, from downward dog, bring the knees down, child's pose, exhale, when you thread the needle you can thread it from child's or from table or kind of in between which is where I'll do it, so right arm reaches up, take the right arm, weave it underneath the left right shoulder, head down, kind of like open up that right shoulder a little bit back, threading of the needle, okay, reach the right arm back up as you exit, this always feels like a decent counter pose, let's try the other side, left arm reaches up and thread it either from table halfway or all the way back into child's, head down, let that nice upper body rotation as you're pushing your hips back, good, counter it, left arm reaching out and up, beautiful, left arm down, puppy pose, you can keep your knees wide or a little more narrow, walk the hands forward, keep the hips and seat right over the knees, slide or walk your hands forward so that the chest and the chin or chest and forehead draw toward the floor, if it's too much on your shoulders bring your forearms and elbows down, still get that nice length in the upper back, prepare yourself for a little core work here, so come into your forearms, lift your knees, forearm plank, you can keep your knees down if that's more your speed at the moment, we're gonna send the hips and the heels over to the right, you can keep your right arm forward facing or you can kind of partially parallel with the front of the mat and lift the left arm high, so some good shoulder upper back core stability and then bring the left forearm down, let's kind of switch it up, heels over to the left, hips pivot, right arm reaching, all the while stable, steady in the core, one more switch over to the right, I like to stagger the feet, it just eliminates one extra movement there, still extremely effective in the work we're doing, bring it down, switch it on over to the left arm, back into forearm plank, forearm plank, knees down, point the toes back, Sphinx pose, try not to let the belly be too chilled out here, so pull the belly up a little bit, don't release any tension in the low back, lower yourself down, I'm gonna move myself to the right side of the mat just a little bit, left arm reaching out to the left, palm down, push your right hand into the mat, lift your left leg up and rotate over to the left, so you're taking that right foot, palm down, behind the left leg, can be a pretty intense shoulder stretch, so be mindful, you might feel it in your low back and your hips, explore that longer if you'd like, check out the other side, okay, so reach that right arm out, palm down, left leg up, swivel, feels like a swiveling motion, left foot palm down behind that right leg and then you just kind of gently stretch that right shoulder out, maybe you feel it in the arm, the shoulder, the chest, maybe in the hips in the low back, it's a really lovely stretch, back over to center, nice, reach the arms back behind you, clasp your fingers or keep them out wide, palms down, up to you, your choice, locust pose, so strong in the hips, in fact like thrust the hips down into the mat, squeeze the booty a little bit and lift the chest, the legs lift, that's cool too, feel the shoulders open, strong back body, drop the chin a little bit and release, take one or both of your legs or feet or ankles, I kind of like to grab the ankles, most of the time the cue is into the top of the foot, your choice, we're going to do a little chill bow pose, alright, so with that said try to keep your knees about hip width, maybe a little wider if that feels better, roll the shoulders open, maybe stay right there with like a gentle little lift in the upper body, if you want a little more work push the feet, the legs into the hands, lifting the knees just a little bit and maybe the chest just a little bit more and release, place your hands underneath your forehead stacked, keep your legs bent, windshield wiper, legs from side to side once or twice just to loosen up the back, okay, child's pose up and back, this might feel like a nice counter stretch in the low back, good, up onto your seat where we will eventually close out with your legs crossed, take a gentle little spinal twist to the left, spinal twist to the right, walk your hands forward, stretch out the low back again similar to that child's pose and then sit up nice and tall, press the hands together, it's that closing right that Anjali mudra at your heart, take one sweet, let's do it together, one sweet breath in, sweet breath out, forehead to fingertips, namaste, thank you, thank you, thank you, have a blessed, beautiful day, see you next time.